MLB.com's Carrie Muskat has been covering Major League Baseball since 1981 and is the author of "Banks to Sandberg to Grace: Five Decades of Love and Frustration with the Cubs." You can follow her on Twitter @CarrieMuskat. Here, she blogs about the Cubs.

7/18 The kids can play

The Cubs may have finally found the right combination at the top of the order. Rookies Tyler Colvin and Starlin Castro provided the 1-2 punch to help ignite the Cubs in an 11-6 win Sunday night over the Phillies. Colvin and Castro combined to go 6-for-9 with three runs, a stolen base and one RBI.

“I like it,” Lou Piniella said of the combination, which actually was reversed when the two played in Double-A last year. “I like the young kids up there, they swung the bats good. Why disturb something that worked?”

The two each have 14 multi-hit games. Colvin is batting .385 in his last six games and Castro is 12-for-22 (.545) in his last six games.

“Their baseball IQ is very high,” Marlon Byrd said of the two rookies. “You tell Starlin and you tell Colvin something once, they retain it. I didn’t do that when I was young — I had to be told millions of times. They’re learning quick and they’re showing it on the field.”

“I’d like to think I absorb everything,” Colvin said. “You get bits and pieces from each one — that’s how you learn baseball.”

Alfonso Soriano keeps an eye on Castro, making sure he shares his baseball expertise with the 20-year-old shortstop as well as some of the Dominican food he has delivered to Wrigley before games.

“If he feels comfortable, he’ll feel comfortable playing baseball,” Soriano said. “My first time to the big leagues, I didn’t feel comfortable.”

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